I'm 26 now, and currently travelling the world playing online poker for a living, looking to start investing in real estate more actively in the upcoming months.I've been investing in real estate on a very small scale since I was 19.  

Make a low enough offer and odds are you come out OK, just play the odds like poker.

I am a professional poker player in LA and had some connections through Hollywood Park Casino (The site of the new LA Rams and the large development) that gave me inclination to invest there.

poker tournaments.

You must have had some very good years to still average out to 50%.It's kind of like how poker players remember their bad beats, but not the hands where they got lucky.

@Anthony Dooley, I agree but at the height of this market, expecting an appreciation is like playing a poker with a blind fold.

As a professional programmer, I just can't place any trust in ANY online auction system, just like I would rather sit a a poker table than in front a poker slot machine.I was going to cite some examples, but having raised the question of manipulation should be sufficient to cause a moment of reflection before you dive into the deep end of the pool.Your experiences?

Like poker, there are good "folds" and this might be one of them.  

Certainly there are examples of people who end up being successful but there are examples of people winning the lottery or poker players drawing out to an inside straight. 

I have been playing golf, poker and fly fishing in Montana for the past 20 yrs.